Environmental Health Issues In The Wake Of A
Major Earthquake In West Sumatra, Indonesia
Author(s)
D. Fanany
Abstract
The 2009 earthquake in Padang, the capital city of the province of West Sumatra
in Indonesia, devastated the city’s physical landscape, causing material and
economic damage that has yet to be repaired. Environmental health issues arising
from the earthquake also remain mostly unresolved. Many of the earthquake’s
most devastating effects were exacerbated by the lack of effective contingency
planning and responses in place. This paper presents the events relating to
reconstruction efforts in the year following the earthquake and the environmental
health issues that emerged, including problems related to the water supply and a
serious outbreak of dengue fever. Four features of the Indonesian political
landscape that affected the response to the disaster and the reconstruction process
are identified: corruption; regional autonomy; technological leapfrogging; and
the concept of pembangunan [development].
Keywords: West Sumatra, earthquake, environmental health, reconstruction.
1 Introduction
On September 30, 2009, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale struck
the Indonesian province of West Sumatra. The earthquake’s epicenter was in the
region of Pariaman, on the coast just north of the provincial capital of Padang.
While earthquakes are not uncommon either in Indonesia as a whole or in West
Sumatra specifically, it had been relatively unusual for the epicenter to be in such
close proximity to a major city. As such, little attention had been given to
earthquake-resistant construction or city planning, and authorities had little in the
way of contingency preparation for such an event. Official records reported
1,115 deaths and nearly 3,000 serious injuries as a result of the quake [1]. The
city of Padang suffered severe and extensive damage, with many buildings either
Keywords
West Sumatra, earthquake, environmental health, reconstruction
Related Book
Other papers in this volume
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